Faculty Advising Guidelines
- Provide adequate meeting time for advising with your students. For first-year students plan to offer at least 20-30 minutes each.
- Be familiar with Dickinson’s graduation requirements and check your advisee’s progress each semester. Encourage them to take advantage of the program evaluation (degree-audit) option available in Banner Self-Service.
- Encourage your advisees to identify areas of interest and help them select a balanced course of study
- leading to possible majors. - If you are notified that an “Early Alert” has been initiated for one of your advisees, ask your advisee to stop by your office to discuss how things are going.
- If your advisee has received a U grade at Roll Call, ask them to make an appointment with you within the next week to discuss their difficulty.
- Make sure your advisees know that they can meet with you during the year beyond course request/registration times. Encourage them to take the initiative.
- Find opportunities to let your advisees know that they can talk about non-academic concerns, if they want to. Use your role as an advisor to help them seek and find the help they need.
- In the course of your conversations, make sure your advisees know about the various resources and opportunities available to them at Dickinson College.
- Ask periodically about future plans (beyond Dickinson). Encourage exploration and flexibility in course selection and activities beyond the classroom.
- If you are contacted by parents and are comfortable talking with them, be sure there is a FERPA waiver (in the student’s official life in the Registrar’s Office) before discussing specific information with them. In all cases feel free to refer parents to Tara Fischer, Dean of Advising.
Student files are confidential. You should never discuss a student’s record with another student. Conversations with colleagues about students should be limited to a legitimate educational interest. As an advisor, you may need to be in touch with an advisee’s faculty members if there are problems or concerns, and similarly you may have other faculty members contacting you about concerns with one of your advisees. It is useful to keep the College Dean informed of concerns about a student, and you should expect to hear from the College Dean when information has been received that you, as advisor, should know.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that students may have about credits, requirements, major selection, and more related to Advising can also be found under "Student Resources"
Additional Resources:
Strategies, Organization & Achievement Resources (SOAR)
Faculty Resources for Accommodating and Advising Students with Disabilities